1. Field of the Disclosure
The disclosure relates to a system and method for transferring and treating a substrate, and more particularly, to a system and method for transferring and treating a substrate which can improve the substrate transferring/treating efficiency by interconnecting treating, cleaning, and drying lines in a docking-type system.
2. Description of the Related Art
Generally, a substrate used for a flat panel display (FPD), a semiconductor wafer, a liquid crystal display (LCD), a photo mask glass, and the like are treated while going through depositing, etching, stripping, cleaning, and rinsing processes.
Such a series of processes are performed in association with a transfer system to define a circulation cycle formed with feeding, treating, and dispensing processes. The transfer system generally includes a manual guarded vehicle (MGV), an auto guarded vehicle (AGV) and a clean transfer vehicle (CVT).
The substrate transfer system is associated with the treating processes in a variety of methods.
That is, the substrate transfer system feeds the substrate from the cleaning line to a cassette, and transfers the substrate stored in the cassette to a vacuum evaporation depositing device or a sputtering device. The substrate transfer system further transfers the substrate treated in the vacuum evaporation deposition device or the sputtering device to the cassette and feeds the substrate stored in the cassette to the etching device.
Alternatively, the substrate transfer system feeds the substrate to the cassette. A zenith carrier transfers the substrate stored in the cassette to an adjacent cassette. The substrate stored in the adjacent cassette is further fed to the substrate treating line.
However, such a substrate transferring/treating system has a variety of drawbacks, as follows.
1. Since a number of substrate treating lines are independently arranged and a number of transferring devices are disposed between the substrate treating lines, transferring, storing, and withdrawing processes should be repeatedly performed for the treating lines, causing the transferring time to be retarded.
2. Since parts of the substrate transferring/treating system, such as a loader, a depositing part, an etching part, a rinsing part, a stripping part, a cleaning part, and an unloader are independently provided, a relatively large installing space is required, increasing the equipment costs.
3. Since the transferring of the substrate is realized by a conveying device such as the MGV, AGV, and CVT, the substrate treatment efficiency is deteriorated.
4. Since the system is exposed to an external environment, the substrate may be contaminated during the transferring process.